Australia is lucky to have Tim Paine, says Ian Healy

Paine is seen as the Test captain for the immediate future by Australia.

Former wicketkeeper-batsman Ian Healy has said that even though the results as of now haven't gone right under his captaincy, Australia is still very lucky to have Tim Paine taking on the leadership responsibility.

In the wake of being found guilty of the offense of ball-tampering earlier this year, Cricket Australia banned David Warner and Steve Smith for a year and decided that the duo can never again be leading the country in any format. This is when the admirable Tim Paine took over the job for the last Test in South Africa and in England for the ODI series.

While signs are there that Aaron Finch will be the next long-term limited-overs captain, it is Tim Paine who is currently seen as the red-ball format leader in the immediate future.

Ian Healey, who played 119 Tests for Australia and is a famous commentator these days, was quoted regarding the matter saying, “It’s a bit of a sore point that there are no other candidates, you know? What are we developing, where are our cricketers?”

“I would have liked to have had ready one or two more experienced cricketers than Tim Paine having to take on the captaincy.", he added, “No one’s been guilty of making a mistake here, it’s just the way it panned out it had to be lumped onto Painey. We’re lucky to have Painey as an experienced cricketer in the mix.”

Reiterating the difficulty of the job for Paine, Healy further said, “It’s very difficult to do what Tim Paine has been asked to do at international level, The difference between a four-day game and a five-day game is huge, and then you’re stepping up to international level where the media demands are much more and you worry for your team which has been struggling." and added, “He’s got a lot on his plate so he has to learn to get his job done, not stress for everyone else and just get a team plan that gets close to being executed.”